Nathan the prophet also came in.
Solomon succeeding David
I. The trouble arising from lack of home discipline. Many a parent sows seeds of sorrow by over-indulgence of the children. Nothing is more prophetic of grief to come, for the parent, and calamity, for the child, than failure to insist upon obedience. There is to be a throne and something of parental sovereignty in every home. God requires of all parents, for their own sakes, the children’s sake, and the sake of society, that they should govern their household.
II. The sin of disregard for parents. Adonijah knew that his father had designated Solomon as his successor. Finding his father feeble and at the point of death, he conspired against him, influenced all he could to join him in the conspiracy, and aid him in accomplishing his purpose. In the ambition of his heart to reign over Israel he was ready for any intrigue, any injustice. Ambition is the cause of much of this world’s crime. It consumes all the better feelings of our nature; makes men regardless of tenderest relations and deepest obligations. There are no duties diviner than those we owe to our parents. In their old age, especially, parents have supreme claim on the affection and protection of their children. None but he who is lost to all sense of the claims of love, and is far gone in sin, can wilfully make sad a parent’s heart. In all tenderness, and all solicitation for the joy and comfort of their parents, children should hand them down to their graves, making, if it may be, their last days the sunniest and most restful.
III. The sacredness of human pledges. David had assured Bathsheba that her son Solomon should succeed to the throne. Human pledges are sacred, especially when made in the fear of God, and according to His conscious will. No difficulties should ever turn men aside from fulfilling their vows. There should be no delay when danger threatens. All men have many interests in their hands. It will cost, of time, strength, and exposure, it may he, to guard these interests; but they should be guarded, whatever the cost. David acted promptly, thus he succeeded. Delays are often fatal. Decision is demanded for emergencies. While men fear and hesitate it often becomes too late. Truth is to be done. Neither God nor man excuses falsehood. Faithlessness is full of annoyance. Our lives should be worthy of trust. There may be impossibilities in the way; these alone should prevent the keeping of our pledges.
IV. The faithfulness of friends. Adonijah would have been crowned as king, had not the friends of David and Solomon revealed the conspiracy. But these friends were true; and their haste in acquainting the king of what was transpiring gave him time to avert the calamity. Faithfulness to friends is one great want of the world. None is safe from attack on the part of the ambitious and designing. Neighbours are in danger of being injured in person or position without knowing it, or being able to avoid the snare. Society is full of secret schemings to rise on the ruin of others. Character is assailed; property imperilled; all sacred things put in jeopardy by the unscrupulous. Often serious and irreparable injury is done before the parties affected dream of anything evil in the air. In business, in politics, in the whole range of human plan’s for personal advancement, or right doing on any line, men are liable to be maligned and harmed. It is duty in all cases and at all hazard to give warning or counsel, and to interpose for the protection of others. We are not to be busybodies, but we are to be our brother’s keeper.
V. The patience of faith. Solomon likely knew of the conspiracy of Adonijah; but he was as a deaf man that heard not. He seems to have quietly composed himself, leaving it to God and his friends to order all. God had a will as to that succession to the throne. Solomon understood it, and he could wait. Faith is patient. There may be delays and disasters. Enemies may seem to succeed against us. Providence may seem to be opposing. It may be wholly dark and ominous. But we are to compose ourselves and wait.
VI. The sovereignty of God. Adonijah considered the kingdom his by birthright, after the death of Absalom. He had, however, been set aside by Divine appointment. He had been welcomed with the cry: “God save King Adonijah!” Shall that conspiracy succeed? God had planned otherwise. No plan formed against the Almighty can permanently prosper. Wickedness may prevail for a time. Wicked men may come to crowning. There may be long bafflings and delayings in the fulfilment of prophecy. But God reigns. His word shall be accomplished. Here is our hope in reference to this lost world. We have only to find our place and do our work. The day is to dawn. There are to be turnings and overturnings. Kingdoms and empires are to rise and fall--all unto the end of the setting up of the kingdom of Christ on the earth. The day of jubilee is to be ushered in. (Monday Club Sermons.)
Solomon’s succeeding David
This presents before us the last of those three equal reigns, of forty years each, which seem to be typical of the three dispensations: the Hebrew Church with its apostasy; the Christian Church during its militant period; and the millennial reign with its triumphant glory. If Solomon was thus the type of the “Prince of Peace,” the fact that he ascended his throne only by displacing a usurper may find its correspondence in the usurpation of authority over this world, Christ’s rightful realm, by the prince of darkness. Yet how sure stands the unchanging word, “I have set my King upon my holy hill of Zion”! Adonijah, who is mentioned fourth among David’s sons, as his mother, Haggith, is fourth among David’s wives, was a curious compound of physical beauty and grace with boundless conceit and impudence, arrogance, and ambition. He was a spoiled child: we are quaintly told in this chapter that “his father had not displeased him at any time in saying, Why hast thou done so?” Of his mother, Haggith, we get no glimpse, except as the record reveals that at Hebron, not long after Absalom’s birth, she became the mother of this her only child, Adonijah. Her name in the Hebrew tongue means “dancer,” and she was probably a gay, light, unprincipled woman, lacking both intellectual force and moral depth of character. This son certainly resembled this probable portrait of his mother. He was a “goodly man”; that is, of attractive personal presence--what, in our corruption of pure English, we would call a “handsome man.” Yet his youthful passions were stronger than his principles, and his impulses trampled upon his convictions. As often happens in such cases, this son, who by reason of his mother’s laxity and his own waywardness, needed a father’s restraint the more, was subject to no parental authority or discipline whatever, and under no sceptre of family government. His ambition was reckless. Ordinarily, however much the favourite of his father, he could not have aspired to succeed him on the throne, for Ammon, Chileab, and Absalom would each in turn prefer the clash of primogeniture; but the death of these three elder brothers left Adonijah the eldest living son, and therefore a claimant to the royal succession. The throne was, however, pledged to Solomon, his younger brother, a child of promise, “beloved of the Lord,” and better qualified every way for a wise and just ruler. Adonijah’s ambition was not to be so easily thwarted. He saw with secret exultation the visible and rapid decline of his father’s strength, and that the time had come to seize by force a crown which he could not secure by favour or procure by merit. Let us not forget the lesson’s moral, which touches both parents and children. Parental authority and filial obedience are among God’s unchanging decrees. A Divine curse for ever alienated from Eli’s house the sacred privilege of the priesthood; and this is the ground of the curse: “Because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not.” Yet he did inquire into their conduct and severely rebuked it, and so was a better father than David, who did not even investigate Adonijah’s course. How grand is the contrast of Abraham, who commanded his children and his household after him to do justice and judgment! There may be an indulgence which is innocent. To deny to a child the gratification of a proper and natural desire whose indulgence would work no harm to the child nor injustice to others may be unjust; capricious refusal may provoke to wrath a child who is disposed to obedience, and stir up mischief, if not malice. But promiscuous indulgence leaves children to grow up selfish, sensual, and reckless. One of the laws of the Mosaic code required every builder of a house to put a battlement around the roof; and that battlement, in the building of the household, is parental law. Where that exists a child falls into ruin only as he climbs over the battlement. Without pressing this lesson to the extreme of a fanciful typical interpretation, we may lawfully find in it illustrations of some most important truths: first of all, the secret of prevailing prayer. Bathsheba went before King. David with confidence, for he had given his royal word of promise: “Surely Solomon thy son shall sit on my throne.” There was no presumption in her plea; she was emboldened by the king’s word: it was the confidence and courage of faith. And so she got her request, and the answer was immediate as well as sure: “Even so will I certainly do this day.” What is our encouragement in prayer? The promise of the immutable God. No capricious moods make Him liable to repent or change His mind; no old age and failing faculties render Him liable to forget. We have to do with the eternal, unchanging God, whose word is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever. A second illustration may be gathered from this lesson as to the providence of God overruling the evil designs of men and accomplishing His purposes. Everything seemed against Solomon when Adonijah, surrounded by his fellow-conspirators, was saluted as king. His throne was at risk, and even his life was in peril But there was an old man, not yet dead, in whose feeble hands the sceptre still rested, and who had sworn that Solomon should be heir to the kingdom. A few words spoken by him unseated the usurper, dispersed his minions, and placed the child of promise upon the throne. How often “all things” seem against us, while “all things work together for our good.” The god of this world has usurped the kingdom, and a host of followers rally round his standard. The apparent successes of the god of this world in seizing the reins of empire and oppressing the saints of the Most High shall make his ultimate defeat only the more overwhelming, complete, and final (A. T. Pierson, D. D.)
Solomon succeeding David
I. A royal advising.
1. Visiting the king
2. Honouring the king.
(1) In advancing a good cause a little quiet planning may accomplish excellent results, and not be dishonest. Nathan and Bathsheba had made their arrangements beforehand.
(2) In advancing a good cause, a good action or good advice wins much in efficacy by being skilfully performed or given.
(3) In advancing a good cause a respectful demeanour toward those in authority costs nothing, and usually accomplishes much.
(4) In advancing a good cause a good name is of the first importance. David knew at once that Nathan’s plea was not for anything bad.
II. A royal usurper.
1. Treacherous sacrifices.
2. Treacherous treatment.
3. Treachery suspected.
(1) In advancing a bad cause, it is natural to have good things to eat.
(2) In advancing a bad cause, its promoters are always forward in appealing to the Divine protection, “God save King Adonijah.”
(3) In advancing a bad cause, its promoters are generally exclusive in their friendships. Of course, Nathan was not admitted to a share m proceedings upon which he would have frowned.
(4) In combating a bad cause, it is always best to come to a clear understanding of exactly who are its friends, and who its enemies. That is what Nathan sought in questioning David.
(5) In combating a bad cause, the more care that is exercised the better. Every bad cause has at least one very skilful promoter, whose mere tools Adonijah and Abiathar and all the rest of them are. The devil keeps a close watch over his own interests.
III. A royal ruler.
1. His mother summoned.
2. His father promising.
(1) By the Lord, his Redeemer.
(2) To establish Solomon.
3. His mother rejoicing.
(1) In act.
(2) In word.
4. His reign established.
(1) When a man must go forth to leave the duties of his earthly station, it is becoming that he should carefully consider in whose hands he shall leave them.
(2) When a man has an important question to decide, he seldom loses anything by inviting his wife to assist at the conference.
(3) When a man is called to the test, he ought not to be long in making good his promises, if it is in his power to do so.
(4) When a man is nearing the point of death, it is folly to defer doing as he has promised until the future. “So will I certainly do, this day.”
(5) When a man has humbled himself to do, it will seldom harm his wife to humble herself to thank him.
(6) When a man is nearing the point of death, such a cry as “Let my lord King David live for ever,” has its very serious aspects. (Sunday School Times.)